How to Perform a Hard Refresh and Clear Your Browser Cache

Have you ever revisited a website only to find it loading faster than the first time? That’s because your browser stores a local copy of the site on your computer, enabling quicker access compared to downloading it from the internet each time.

While caching speeds up page loading, it may lead to changes not immediately appearing on the website. This is a common issue for our web design clients who may not see modifications we’ve made to their sites. We, too, use hard refreshes during SEO tasks to ensure we’re viewing the most current search engine results.

To address this, you can perform a hard refresh to clear your browser cache and fetch the latest content. The process is straightforward, with commands varying depending on your browser and operating system.

How to hard refresh browser and clear cache if you’re using Chrome.

Chrome and Mac:

To do a hard refresh on Google Chrome on Mac, there are two ways that you can do it:

1. Hold down Shift and click the Reload button.
2. Or Hold down Command, Shift and click the ‘R’ key.

Chrome and Windows:

To hard refresh on Google Chrome on Windows, there are two ways you can do it:

1. Hold down Ctrl and click the Reload button.
2. Or Hold down Ctrl and press F5.

How to hard refresh browser and clear cache if you’re using Firefox.

Firefox and Windows:

To hard refresh on Firefox on Windows, there are also two easy hotkey commands you can use:

1. Hold down Ctrl, Shift and the ‘R’ key.
2. Or Hold down Ctrl and press F5.

Firefox and Mac:

To hard refresh on Firefox on Mac, there are also two easy key combinations that you can use:

1. Hold down Command, Shift and the ‘R’ key.
2. Or Hold down Shift and press the reload button.

How to hard refresh browser and clear cache if you’re using Safari.

To hard refresh safari, there is one simple way to do it.

1. Hold down the option and command key then press the ‘E’ key.

How to hard refresh browser and clear cache if you’re using Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer

To hard refresh safari, there is one simple way to do it:

1. Hold the Control key, press the F5 key.
2. Or, hold the Control key, click the Refresh button.